Follow us!

LIKE us on Facebook!

RSS

Categories

All- Over almost 8 years I have enjoyed sharing this with you and it has been fun. I’ve reached a lot of people and, based on various emails and comments to the blog touched a lot of people in a … Continue reading →

Michael Gallagher

Want some daily entertainment?

You know you want to enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Pages

See what all the Buzz is about!

Fennel Frittata

Growing up, I always thought that a Frittata was a scrumptious breakfast food. Eggs, assorted veggies, and sometimes some bacon or ham–you have to admit, together they scream “Eat me for breakfast!”

Frittata

It wasn’t until I spent a semester living in Tuscany with a darling older Italian couple, that my Frittata worldview changed drastically. Many nights, I would trek up the 6 flights of stairs and at about the 5th floor (yes, at this point I was getting terribly winded…I blame it on the pasta) heavenly baked goodness would start filling the air. Yep, you guessed it, it was fritatta night.

Fennel/Finocchio

Fennel: Don't forget to cut the core out of the bottom (its the tough part)

Flora, my homestay mom, absolutely adored fennel, which is called finocchio in Italian. For the first month or so, there would always be this white-ish onion-looking thing on my plate and all I knew it as was finocchio. It was the bomb. It wasn’t until my Italian class established a mastery of introductions and present tense verbs that I started learning fruits and vegetables, and I could finally translate finocchio into fennel.

Now back to Frittatas…Flora would make hers with all fennel, but sometimes she would use either zucchini or potatoes, and top generously with freshly grated Parmesan cheese mmmm…excuse me while I go buy a plane ticket to Italy really quick). The moral of the story is that frittatas are so simple and tasty they are good for any meal of the day, not just breakfast.

In a medium cast iron skillet, cook 3 strips of bacon until desired crispiness (its easier to crumble if it’s crispy). Drain most of the bacon fat. Add in the potatoes and fennel to sauté for a few minutes, stirring to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom. Add in the rest of the vegetables to sauté for a few more minutes.

In a bowl, combine 8 eggs with 1/3 cup milk, 1/2 cup shredded cheese with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Arrange the sautéed vegetables in the skillet so that they are evenly distributed. Add a handful of fresh spinach and pour the egg mixture on top. Cook on the stovetop for 5-7 minutes on medium heat.

Batter up!

Transfer the skillet to the top rack of a 400 degree oven and cook for another 8-10 minutes, or until the egg mixture looks cooked.

Add another handful of shredded cheese to the top of the frittata, turn the oven on Broil, and cook for another 5 minutes. Enjoy!